Pictorial star atlases were very popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries – and many of them are still admired today.

stars, a new projection (now usually known as the Sanson–Flamsteed projection) and engrav-ings that faithfully followed Ptolemy’s descrip-tions of his 48 constellation figures, it set a new standard in depicting the sky and demonstrated that great science can also be great art. Despite its merits, Flamsteed’s atlas was large and expensive. A smaller, cheaper version was needed for popular consumption. This is what Alexander Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas provided, yet the man behind it is not well known. This article is an attempt to throw light on a little-known author of a well-known work. The first popular atlas based on Flamsteed’s 1729 work was made by Jean Nicolas Fortin (1750–1831), a maker of scientific instruments and globes, and appeared nearly half a century later, in France. Fortin’s Atlas Céleste de Flam-stéed was first published in 1776, with a revise